When my mom sometimes sighs and says, “You used to be such a happy child,” which part is being mourned as having “used to be”? “You used to be a child,” I suppose, is sad in itself, in the way that time passing is often sad. But everyone aside from babies used to be a child, so it can’t be that sad. “You used to be happy” is what it feels like that phrase really means. “Why aren’t you happy anymore?” is what that phrase feels like it’s asking. I have started to notice that, in describing my brother’s childhood, my mom likes to say, “You were always such a happy child.”
